


Actions Speak Louder

by aem77



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-16 00:43:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2249541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aem77/pseuds/aem77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bea's done talking...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Actions Speak Louder

“Watch your back, Fuckface! I am coming for you. Sincerely, Beatrice Duke,” she spits in conclusion. 

She brings her hands to her face and practically growls with frustration. She means her words with all her heart. But they’re just that- words. What she needs now is to _do_ something, anything, to ease this feeling weighing down on her heart. Her pulse is racing again and the anger she’s kept at bay for weeks now is boiling in her veins threatening to seep through, rising like vapor from her skin. She wills herself to unclench her fists and eyes and look over at the boy sitting beside her. Ben looks back, his face filled with an odd mixture of concern and awe.

“What?” She asks nervously feeling suddenly embarrassed by her raw show of emotion. The thought brings another wave of anger. When in the world did she start caring so much about what Ben thinks of her? When did she become that sort of girl? And why on earth is it Ben of all people that's evoking this in her?

“Nothing,” he answers a bit defensively. “It’s just that I’ve never seen you so angry at someone who wasn’t me before. It’s pretty terrifying” he smiles a bit with this and a third emotion of fondness joins the concern and awe from before. And dammit all, if that doesn’t cause her heart to race for an entirely different reason.

He’s been doing this for a while now. Bringing a smile to her face when she least expects it, when she needs it most. He’s here with her now when she most needs someone, against all odds and expectations, and she’s starting to become confused about where gratitude and friendship end and affection and desire begin. She smiles back at him and reaches across their laps to grab his hand in her own.

She means it as a friendly gesture, a thank you for his support and presence. But somehow the move has shifted her position and she finds her body angled slightly towards him. Unconsciously, he mirrors her movement and they find themselves sitting close, face-to-face, on the edge of his bed. The heavens themselves seem to be conspiring against her as outside a cloud moves to cover the bright afternoon sun throwing the room into shadow. She can feel his pulse through their joined hands and feels as if her own body is humming in time with its cadence. Her flush from her earlier anger intensifies now becoming sweeter and she can’t even stop herself from staring at his lips.

“We’ll fix this Bea,” he says solemnly staring down at their hands, “I promise I’ll help you fix this.” His voice is so earnest and pained that she forgets Hero’s honor and her own revenge for a moment and thinks only of Ben. Maybe it was wrong to put him in the middle of all of this, selfish even.

“You don’t need to do that, Ben.” She tries to extract her hand from his but he hangs on tightly pulling her even closer to him in the process. “This isn’t your battle.”

“It is,” he insists. “It’s yours, right?” She nods weakly in assent. “Then it’s mine too. Look at me, Bea.” He says lifting her chin with his free hand to look into her eyes. He keeps his hand cupped along her jaw and she leans into his touch despite herself. “It’s mine too,” he repeats. “Bea, I…”

Quickly she moves her free hand to his face placing her thumb over his lips to stop his words. “You don’t want to hear what I have to say?” He mumbles dejectedly through her fingers.

She looks at him now, really sees him, without the biases 4 years in the making that have been distorting her vision since that summer so long ago, and realizes she does want to hear him, more than anything in the world. But she’s tired of words. What she needs now is actions. So she removes her fingers from his mouth and replaces them with her lips.


End file.
